Deck

It's hard to find anything not to like about the Great American Beer Festival[5], which comes to the Colorado Convention Center from September 16 to 18. The festival, which is in its 29th year, will feature 2,200 beers from 462 breweries—the largest gathering of beers ever served—and more than 3,500 beers from 522 breweries will participate in the contest.

But for those who don't have tickets, here's some bad news: The massive beer-tasting sold out six weeks ago. So, The Denver Post[6] reports, "your only hope now is to find a kindly scalper."

Nevertheless, there is plenty of consolation for the ticketless. By Westword's count[7], about 100 new craft-beer taps have come to Denver over the past six weeks at various locations.

Wondering where to start when it comes to the local brews? For the latest edition of 5280[8], our team of beer drinkers tasted every commercially distributed craft beer in Colorado they could get their hands on, then ranked the best.